Selection of the research approach

In this study the researcher’s main task is trying to identify the kinds of perceptions that teachers attribute to their understanding of environmental education, how environmental education has been integrated into the curriculum and how they translate it into teaching practices. Various methodological approaches could have been adopted. Since the study seeks to find the perceptions, experiences and practices of individual teachers, the study has adopted the qualitative approach.

Current research trends have adopted the use of the qualitative approach to research in investigating experiences (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000; Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000) in order to make an in-depth description of a particular situation or practice. This is based on the fact that the way people experience a phenomenon differs from one individual to another. For that matter, the qualitative paradigm is considered to be appropriate approach to this study compared to the quantitative paradigm, because it seeks teachers’ understanding, practices and experiences (Palmer, 1998). In a similar way Gillham (2001) adds that qualitative methods focus primarily on the kind of evidence given by the respondents. For example, what teachers tell about environmental education is evidence of how they perceive environmental education which will help to understand the rationale for their practices.

As mentioned previously, this study will adopt a qualitative approach using phenomenography and phenomenology as research methods. The choice of the methods has been based on what the research is seeking to find out, namely the teachers’ perceptions and experiences. In the first research question the interest is in teachers’ perceptions of environmental education and education for sustainable development, therefore the appropriate method is phenomenography. The second and third questions seek to explore teachers’ perceptions of the integration of environmental education into the school curriculum and their teaching practices; hence, I chose the phenomenological approach because the focus is on the teachers’ experiences and practices. The term practice here will be used to refer to how actions are situated in their contexts. Therefore, in this study, the teachers teaching practices refer to their actions at work, which is teaching in the classroom. Both the phenomenographic and phenomenological approaches will be discussed in detail in the following section

3.2.1 The phenomenographic approach

In this study, the phenomenographic approach has been adopted to seek teachers’ perceptions of environmental education and education for sustainable development. Phenomenography is a research method which is used to find

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different ways in which individuals conceive or think and understand different aspects of various phenomena around them (Marton, 1986; Ornek, 2008). According to Marton (1981), in phenomenography the interest lies in the description, analysis and understanding of phenomena in the world as other individuals conceive them. Therefore, the focus of phenomenographic research is on the qualitatively different ways in which people understand or experience a particular situation, aspect or phenomena around them (Marton, 1981; Marton & Booth, 1997; Marton & Pong, 2005). The notion qualitatively different ways of experiencing phenomena refers to the different ways of looking or perceiving something. With reference to this study, it is the range of different ways in which teachers conceive environmental education. I say a range of different ways because, as Ornek (2008) argues, individuals differ in the ways in which they experience or perceive phenomena because ways of understanding are not constant among individuals. This is due to the fact that an individual’s understanding is influenced by time, beliefs, culture context and the prior knowledge he/she has of the phenomena in question (Marton, 1981). As a result, ways of experiencing phenomena are constantly changing according to their context and the ways individuals interact with them.

The object of research in phenomenography is the different ways in which people conceptualize experience, perceive, apprehend and understand various phenomena in the world around them (Marton & Booth, 1997). In this study therefore, the focus in the first research question is on the variation in the ways primary school teachers conceive environmental education. The importance of finding the different ways in which individuals perceive things has also been emphasized by Branford and Schwartz (1999), Garner (1974), Gibson and Gibson (1955). They all have emphasized the role of contrast in perception, because people perceive phenomena differently. It is assumed that the way one experiences a particular situation or an object is a result of how they relate it to other phenomena. It is believed that in order to understand how people deal or handle situations or even solve problems, one has to understand their lived perceptions (Marton & Booth, 1997). This is because in phenomenography, individuals are seen as bearers of different ways of experiencing phenomena and also bearers of fragments of different ways of experiencing phenomena. Therefore in phenomenographic research, it is considered that the way in which a phenomenon is experienced is a result of an internal and external relationship which exists between the experiencing individual and the phenomenon being experienced. (Marton and Booth, 1997).

The phenomenographic approach is based on the theory of variation, because variation is at the heart of phenomenography (Marton & Pong, 2005). The theory of variation explains how individuals gain knowledge of the world around them. According to this theory, an individual’s experiences and learning are understood in terms of three aspects, which are discernment, simultaneity and variation. Although these factors are considered independently, they are interrelated, hence forming the base of the variation theory. When we discern something, we expose it to variation. Things can be differentiated by different qualities, like shape, colour, size or any characteristic that makes it appear different from other things. Taking an example of a tree, if we knew only one type of a tree, we would not be able to distinguish a mango tree from a palm tree

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or mahogany. We would call all of them trees, regardless of their differences. But because we know that there are different kinds of trees, we recognize them as different and give them different names for the purpose of identification. Even if we do not know the name of a tree, we still know that it is different from the other trees that we know. When we discern something, the different parts and forms of that thing will appear to enable us recognize that thing and therefore make meaning from it (Marton & Booth, 1997). If we discern different characteristics of a phenomena, like if we say something is round and smooth, we are aware of its shape and texture, which are two different dimensions. A person’s experience can be understood as an internal relationship between the person experiencing and the phenomena being experienced, and that is why we have variations in the way individuals perceive phenomena (Marton & Booth, 1997). According to Bowden and Marton (1998), when we talk about qualitatively different ways of experiencing phenomena, they are concerned with structural differences and differences in meaning.

Experiences of phenomena or situations are usually described by statements. The initial statements made by individuals describing the experiences are referred to as first order perspectives (Marton & Booth, 1997). But when the researcher goes further to search for the reasons why they perceive or conceive the way they do, or even make conclusions about something, the responses they give are referred to as second order perspective. While first order statements are considered as starting points for expanding the individual’s understanding of the phenomena under investigation, the second order seeks to make more clarification of what has been said. In order to get an in-depth understanding of the phenomena being studied, both first and second order perspectives of the individuals need to be adopted. Taking the example of this study, of teachers’ perceptions on the integration of environmental education into the primary curriculum, the initial statements made by the teachers will be first order perspective on how they experience the situation. The statements which will be obtained from the interview will reflect individual teachers’ ways of experiencing the situation. But in order to get an in-depth understanding of the teachers’ experiences, the researcher has to go further and ask the teachers why they think in that particular way by using prompts such as “What do you mean by…… or Why do you think like that? or Can you tell me more about…..” The statements given in response to these questions are second order perspective statements because they clarify the initial or first order statements. It is these second order statements which are used to make judgments about understanding. From the second order perspective, categories of description are developed to describe how the phenomena being studied are understood or experienced. Each of the categories indicates a particular way of understanding or experiencing the phenomena in question. The qualitatively similar and different ways in which individuals perceive phenomena form a category system. Both the categories of description and the category systems form the results of the qualitative analysis (Marton, 1988).

The advantage of using phenomenography in research is that it probes into how individuals experience understanding and construct knowledge. This is important in education because the role of the teacher is to help learners in

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developing concepts which are consistent with the concepts in the various subjects which they study (Marton & Pong, 2005). Also the different conceptions which learners have can form the basis for helping teachers find ways of helping learners change from one way of thinking to another (Marton, 1986). Furthermore, phenomenographic research can help learners be aware of contradictions in their own reasoning as they are exposed to new ideas.

3.2.2 The phenomenological approach

The second and third research questions seek to find out teachers’ perceptions of integrating environmental education into primary school education and their teaching practices in the teaching of environmental education as an integrated component in the school curriculum. Based on the study aims, which seek teachers’ perceptions and practices, I have chosen the phenomenological approach to the study. Phenomenology is a philosophical interpretative qualitative research approach which explores personal experiences as perceived by the participants (Smith & Flowers, 2009). It attempts to give us a full understanding of the individual’s experience (Keen, 1975). Giorgi (1970) argues that phenomenology provides a deeper understanding of human behaviour than other models. This is because when conducting this type of research, the researchers immerse themselves in the material to better understand and appreciate the experience of the respondents (van Manen, 1984): the researcher gets into the “life world” of the respondents. Life world here refers to the concretely experienced everyday world which is taken for granted. The approach is based on the philosophical assumption that individuals get to know only what they experience through the sensory organs.

According to Patton (1990), phenomenology is the study of how individuals describe things and experience them through their senses. In a similar way, Creswell (1998) describes phenomenology seeking to describe the lived experiences of an individual or a group of individuals about a particular phenomenon. In addition, Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2007) define phenomenology as the study of experience as seen by an individual.

Phenomenology as a research method focuses on the structure and essence of experience. It is concerned with how we put together the phenomena we experience to make sense of the world around us, and hence develop a world view.

In this method, semi-structured interviews are used as an instrument for collecting data from the participants. Through the interviews I as the researcher get the opportunity to talk and listen to the teachers as they talk about their practices in teaching environmental education by integrating it into the content of the subjects they teach. In doing this, I am not looking for specific answers, but am attempting to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena being studied. And this deep understanding of the phenomena can be developed by the researcher getting close to the participant and the situation. The goal is to capture everything that is taking place and all that is actually said. The data therefore consists of direct quotations from the participants and lesson observation. Since its focus is on understanding the nature of reality through

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people’s experiences in subjectively constructed processes and meanings, the aim of phenomenology is to determine what an experience means for those who have had the experience and are able to provide a comprehensive description of it. It is argued that the phenomenological method is interested in the ways in which phenomena are experienced, rather than the nature of the phenomena themselves (Cohen et al., 2000). The investigation of teachers practices’ with their perceptions and understanding of how they experience teaching environmental education in their day-to-day lives are essential to uncovering how environmental education is implemented in schools.

In conducting phenomenological research, there are two phases (Creswell, 1998). In the first phase, the epoch, the researcher records on paper his or her biases and assumptions as completely as possible and then tears up the paper to get rid of his/her biases symbolically. The notion of epoch here refers to when the researcher sets aside all the preconceived experiences to best understand the experience of the participants in the study (Moustakas, 1994). This facilitates openness towards the phenomena under investigation. The second phase involves recording, clustering and synthesizing categories to discover the main characteristics of the categories, which are referred to as aspects or sub- categories.

3.2.3 Relation of phenomenography to phenomenology

Sometimes phenomenography is equated to phenomenology. Although the two are qualitative methods of research and they belong to the same field of knowledge which is defined by experience, they are not the same because they differ in terms of their object or purpose of research. Marton and Booth (1997) argue that the two methods are not the same because the object of phenomenological research is human experience, while the object of phenomenography is the structure and nature of human experience. In addition, Ornek (2008) points out that other differences in phenomenology include the aim and research results. Therefore, while phenomenology aims at describing experiences to capture the richness of the individual’s actual experience, phenomenography aims at describing variations in understanding phenomena (Marton & Booth, 1997). Regarding the research results, analysis of phenomenological data leads to the identification of meaning units (Flood, 2010) while in phenomenography analysis leads to the identification of conceptions and outcome space.

Another distinction between the two approaches is the way researchers view the phenomena being studied. While phenomenology views phenomena from the first order perspective, phenomenography describes the phenomena from the second order perspective. In the first order perspective, the researcher describes the phenomena as it is through the eyes of the respondent. In the second order perspective the researcher describes how individuals conceive the world around them. So in the second order perspective, the phenomena being investigated are seen through the participants’ eyes or are described according to how they appear to other people. This exposes the different ways of how people conceive reality.

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Lastly, phenomenology aims at understanding the nature or the qualities of a phenomenon, but phenomenography aims at finding the variation and the structure of this variation in terms of the different aspects which define the phenomenon (Marton, 1996).